No Budget shock for supermarkets

Even though last week’s Budget offered few surprises for some of the UK’s largest supermarkets, one store admitted the 10% cider tax was a shock.

Adrian McKeon, category director of Beer, Wine & Spirits at Asda, added that perhaps too little has been done to help stimulate growth in the retail sectors.

McKeon said: “It has been clear for some time that for both economic and health reasons the government was going to raise duty on alcohol ahead of retail price index.

“We weren’t surprised that the chancellor took the opportunity to address the anomaly in relation to the duty imposed on cider though we hadn’t expected the increase to be 10% on top of RPI.

He added: “We understand that the government has to take difficult decisions to address the current economic situation. However, we firmly believe that consumer confidence is the key to economic recovery and we would like to have seen more measures to stimulate growth.

"Since before the recession, millions of customers were already being savvy and adjusting their shopping habits to make ends meet.”

Meanwhile, Mark Suddaby, head of spirits at Tesco, said that the report was “absolutely what we were expecting across the board,” adding that price hikes were unlikely to drastically change Tesco’s consumer spending habits.

Tesco will be launching its Spring Festival on 6 April, which will include a particular focus on its Finest range. Two bays will be devoted to displaying Finest wines in stores as the supermarket celebrates the range’s 10th anniversary.

Rupert Millar, 29.03.2010